Hey guys, I figured I'd add another project in the Isuzu section, I keep forgetting to post here!

Anyway this is why my Bellett thread hasn't had any updates lately.

Few bad pictures of the day after I got it. Previous owner tried painting it pink

Very straight body work with a few issues underneath, nothing major though.

I'll grab a few photo's tomorrow of progress.

Update 2

Fixed some rust in the door.

Sandblasted underneath passenger guard.

Best stuff ever.

This is how it looks when cleaned off and dried, the gold look is the zinc phosphate.

Fixed rust in passenger sill, then applied por15 and primed.

Bit of panel work on the passenger front door and guard. Holes for mirror welded up.

Update 3

Rust in sills and inner guards all cut out and welded up. etch primed and chassis blacked.

Just waiting on more sandblasting material then engine bay will be stripped and etch primed

Will carry on with body work tomorrow and might start masking it up.

Update 4

Got my tyres mounted finally. 165/45/15 all round with a nice little stretch on the 7 and 7.5" rims

This is hopefully the final ride height it gets certed at, mocked up on the TE.

Have put my custom 20mm spacers on the front to bring them flush

Update 5

Had a pretty good day today, sandblasted all under chassis rails and most of engine bay then por15'd and primed. and also patched up where some body sealer had flew off from sandblaster and all around the fuse box cover thinga ma bob where it had rusted.

Primed up bare metal spots and body work. passenger side is 80% done

Update 6

Looks like it may be painted before I go back to work! (13th)

Roof took about 5 minutes as it only had a few little dings. Most of the drivers side is done minus rear door and front guard.

Sandblasted patches of rust in the boot and blah blah blah.

Should have the whole car masked up ready to be primed tomorrow, might get my paint mixed up too. Then its block sand block sand block sand.

Front valance needs a little attention and also rust in front guards need doing before primer.

Update 7

Last few days I've worked pretty hardcore on the gem getting everything sweet, even finishing up at 10:30 last night for a 10-11 hour day

Trying to get rid of all the rust I can find, even sandblasted the underside of front guards where they had surface rust and tidied them up a bit. Had to weld in decent size patches in the lower front guards.

Sealed up and put guards back on yesterday, then did more body work on them as well as front and rear valances. Few boring pics..

Spent half a day doing tedious sanding on the door jambs and inside of doors, masking up etc. Then primed

This afternoon I set out to pull the engine and gearbox from the TE as I need a car for work. Need to pull the pedal box out as the TX's one has been robbed (they started using the TX as a parts car, luckily got it before they stole the mint bumpers and ruined it even more)

It's now out and on the engine stand ready for a quick clean up. Tomorrow I'll start block sanding and hopefully get it in its last primer coat by the end of the day. (was hoping to get it painted tomorrow but decided not to rush things..)

Update 8

Well I ended up spending the weekend away but spent about 10 hours on it today and will hopefully be fully painted one day after work this week (back to work tomorrow ftl)

With a last minute decision I decided not to dye/paint all the interior black and am using the light blue stuff from the TE as it suits the final colour I reckon it'll look sweet. I'll just dye the carpets black.

Started masking up for the black window surrounds, same as stock paint but a lot better (the factory can't make a straight line for nuts) I'm also going to add a light blue pinstrip to break up any waviness in the masking to match the interior and blue pearl

Here's how she looked at about 9 tonight.

Just a couple of patches to quickly sand as well as all door jambs then it's ready to paint. I have painted the engine bay, under side of bonnet, boot jambs and underside of boot today but haven't got any decent pics as they're blurry. Colour is silver with a very mild blue pearl.

Update 9

Turns out I didn't go to work today, I was gonna type a bunch of nuts here but I don't think anyone will read it so here's some pics instead.

Blacked window surrounds and base coats.

Cleared coated.

Update 10

Looked sweet with sun coming down tonight on the boot.

Unmasked tonight and polished up a few bits like lenses and threw them on.

Update 11

Going to go for wof tomorrow, it's going to fail for sure but hopefully not too badly!

Edit: Paint came out pretty average, could have had another 5-10 hours on prep to be honest.

Update 12

Well she's all warranted now

Still needs a cut and polish, pinstripes, wheels spacers and various other things to do. Probably won't happen for a while now as I'd rather just be driving it

Went with early V8 Commodore springs in the rear which have a better spring rate than the king springs, I want to upgrade to LC-LJ Torana springs up front also. TXs don't have a factory swaybar in the rear but it has a far snappier turn-in compared to the TE which suits my driving style a bit better, surprised with how well the 165's cope as well.

Plans changed, going to be running a fairly standard 4zc1-t now instead of the g200z. The swap won't be till I get a new daily driver as I'll need to take it off the road to do the swap.

Engine is from a turbo Piazza (Isuzu Impulse to you guys in the US I think?), and will most likely be running fairly standard boost from the tiny little IHI turbo for the mean time, atleast.

Started stripping it down over the last week or so and started some port matching and a general tidy up of the casting marks and valve seats. Some photo's are a bit average, forgot to take some of it complete

Here's one of the inlet ports 90% done.

Scribed the exhaust ports and exhaust manifold then matched, still got a bit left to do on the exhaust side.

Degreased and painted, bottom end all looks fine. It has had the big ends done at some stage as the bearings are .25 over size. Took a while to find a full gasket kit in NZ.

we got the late model ones as well
allthough we didnt get the coupe in the late style but a few were built up and raced like my project
but you guy's got the early model as the opel buick,although im not sure if you got the early sedan.

NZ models don't actually have a chassis stamping, they have a chassis tag (riveted plate) with their code (this one is 5F69QGZ6001272) and they have another riveted plate saying "General Motors New Zealand limited" that has the trim code on it

They came here in big plywood boxes (ckd - "completely knocked down" they were called) from Japan in parts then built up locally and sold on.

As far as I know we only got this style grille on the early models, no tc/td style grille at all. I know there must be at least 2 ZZ Gemini's here as I have a ZZ/R lsd in this car and this one was crashed about 15 years ago http://nzgem.proboards.com/index.cgi?bo ... thread=587

cute wee gem ours all started with tx****
tc*** and so on my pf50 has no build plate of trim plates but it has a sticker on the bonnet stating all the paint codes the body number of the pf's are stamped into the fire wall behind the exhaust manifold.
here's mine
oddly enough the grill you have in you gemini we got it the tc,the tx here had the same grill as my pf50.
paul

yep lots of different stuff for starters full sports instrumentation,floor mounted dip swich,better quality interior covering and an odd but the parkers can be switched on either just left or just right or all of them very different to the holden gemini's

Got some big end, main and thrust bearings for this and a VF24 on a top mount Honda manifold, which I'll chop up. Made a flange for the 4ZC1 head, just needs cutting to shape and tidying up, then fiddling to make it fit and weld together.

Ordered new pistons last night, $240nzd for 1mm oversize pistons and rings, should hopefully take it to engine builders on Friday to have them bore/hone, lighten flywheel, skim block & head.

Might order a MLS gasket from Aus too.

Bit of a mock up, engine's going to sit lower on land rover mounts (probably) just need to mod sump slightly as it fouls steering rack. No other cutting even for dizzy/heater fan as bringing it lower makes everything clear. Just need to relocate drivers side heater hose as it comes out right behind the dizzy.

Getting argon bottle next week and will start fiddling with exhaust manifold ;D